Alain Journey
by brtnvm
Summary: After the death of Ash Ketchum during Team Flare's attack on Lumiose city, Arceus sends Alain back in time so that he can protect Ash and prevent his death. Except that Alain is accompanied by Mairin and they're sent a bit too early into Ash's past - how will they manage to protect Ash while maintaining the safety of the original timeline?
1. Chapter 1

Mairin was running away from a woman in a robotic suit with the "E" emblem on her helm. Mairin was running for her life while she was holding an egg that she stole from the Team Flare labs...She barely managed to escape from there but she also took an egg that the scientists wanted to kill for their experiments... She just couldn't let that happen.

"I've- got- to- escape..."(panting)

"Volcarona. Heat Wave." The mysterious woman ordered as the Fire type attack encompassed the street...

The last thing Mairin remembered was how she held the egg as the fire overtook her body as she burned alive.

...

They were standing at the top of the Prism Tower in Lumiose City..

After a long battle with Lysandre, the only Pokemon that Alain had left was his Bisharp...He used the remote access emergency system to send all his other injured Pokemon to the Pokecentre. Seeing that Bisharp was no match for Lysandre's Pokemon, he decided to leave him in his Pokeball. Alain was filled with despair.

Alain bent down on his knees...

"I...I didn't want THIS to happen...All I wanted was to help Mairin!" As the city was submerging into chaos. Alain remembered Mairin's face as he broke down...It was thanks to her faith that he could win the Kalos league...Her smile kept him moving on...Protecting those whom he loved...IF Alain couldn't stop Lysandre, there would be no future for the two of them. But now...Mairin was already dead, even if Alain didn't know it yet.

Ash was silently engulfed by Lysandre's machine that was draining all of the aura power out of him...

"HAHAHA ! I SHALL DESTROY THIS WORLD!" Lysandre shouted out as he pressed a button on his machine.

Suddenly Ash's body began to disintegrate in the laser cage where he was suspended.

"NOOOOO!" Alain cried out as a flash of blinding light engulfed the scene.

...

Alain discovered himself floating around in a white blank space...

"Where am I?"" He wondered.

"YOU. YOU LET THE CHOSEN ONE DIE."

Alain turned around to see Arceus himself towering like a cliff over him. Alain wasn't sure but it seemed that on a far distance away he could make out a green fairy Pokemon, a red and white dragon, another different red dragon except...It was Groudon! And Kyogre... And a lot of others that Alain didn't recognize...However, the presence of the thousand armed Arceus himself was overwhelming - Alain could see a thousand of blinding solar rays extending from Arceus's ring.

"It's...It's...Arceus..." Alain barely managed to pronounce.

"YOU LET ASH DIE."

"I'm SORRY! I had no choice..." Alain cried out in tears as he spoke to Arceus. "I had to help Lysandre gather the Mega Evolution energy...because it was the only way to help Mairin and her Chespin..."

Arceus drilled Alain with his red eyes, scanning his soul.

"YOU ARE SPEAKING THE TRUTH. IN THIS CASE, I WILL MAKE AN EXCEPTION AND FORGIVE YOU. YOU WERE PROTECTING WHAT WAS DEAR TO YOU AND I CANNOT CONDEMN YOU FOR THAT. I SUPPOSE THIS IS WHEN MY DIVINE INTERVENTION IS MOST NECESSARY..." One of Arceus's divine arms bursted out a piece of energy that started spinning in front of Alain.

The rotating floating shadow materialized in front of Alain. Second by second, the features were becoming more clear as the persona turned out to be an unconscious shadow copy of the body of Mairin with a red egg attached to her bag by ropes.

"HER CHESPIN'S SOUL HAS ALREADY BEEN ABSORBED BY ********(Arceus said something Alain couldn't understand) BUT THE GIRL HERSELF CAN STILL BE RESTORED ...I ALLOW YOU TO REUNITE WITH THIS GIRL UNDER THE CONDITION THAT YOU MUST ALWAYS REMAIN LOYAL TO HER AND OBEY EVERY SINGLE WORD SHE SAYS. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY TO THESE TERMS, HER SOUL WILL IMMEDIATELY BE SENT BACK TO THE DISTORTION WORLD - SHE WAS DESTINED TO DIE YOUNG ANYWAY...OOPS! I SHOULDN"T REVEAL THE DESTINY OF SOULS' TO MORTALS...WELL, YOU GET IT, I HOPE..."

"I promise!" Alain shouted. And the same second as he shouted - out of nowhere a huge dark centipede dragon approached Mairin's floating body and fired something at her. It had the shape of a white Chimecho but nothing like those that Alain had ever seen - it was the definition of purity itself - this was the soul of a human as it appeared. As the white Chimecho entered Mairin's body... Her body stopped being a translucent shadow and started filling with three-dimensional flesh and matter... Mairin's eyes suddenly opened up in fear and misunderstanding of her surroundings...She didn't understand what was going on...Another "soul" in the form of a white transparent Larvesta entered the egg Mairin was carrying in her bag.

He broke into cold sweat as he realized that Mairin was already dead when he was on the tower with Ash and Lysandre... He was ready to do anything Arceus said in order to save her...and Ash, of course.

"I ...SHALL SEND YOU BACK IN TIME SO THAT YOU WILL PREVENT THE CHOSEN ONE'S DEATH AND I SHALL GIVE YOU MUCH TIME TO PREPARE... SINCE YOU HAVE ONLY A BISHARP RIGHT NOW, IN YOUR ASSISTANCE , I ALLOW YOU TO CHOOSE TWO OF THE ORIGINAL'S."

(Original's?) Alain thought. (Arceus must be referring to the Legendaries of the Hall of Origin) Alain realized.

"Ummm...I choose...Those two red dragons!" Alain decided that this wasn't the time to be picky so he pointed at the two legendaries that were standing the closest to him.

"I SEE. YOUR CHOICE - LATIAS AND GROUDON. WISE CHOICE - BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO EARN THEIR RESPECT...ESPECIALLY GROUDON'S"

As the two Legendaries that Alain chose were sucked into odd-looking Premiere Balls and attached themselves onto Alain's belt, Arceus said -

"THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE TO REDEEM YOURSELF, ALAIN. THE WHOLE WORLD IS COUNTING ON YOU TO TAKE CARE OF ASH KETCHUM THE CHOSEN ONE."

Everything disappeared.

...

Alain opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground in an unfamiliar place in his usual black Trainer costume. He seemed to be lying on the porch of some sort of white rustic house.

"Ugh...I guess that was just a bad dream. Where am I though?"

"You had a bad dream? Tell me about it, Alain. Pleeeeease." A girl with red hair was lying right next to him with her head placed on Alain's shoulder. It was...Mairin!

"Ugh, well, ok..." (Alain immediately remembered his promise to Arceus about obeying every word of Mairin) At the same time he checked his belt and saw Bisharp's Pokeball...and two Marble Premiere Balls with Unown symbols on them...Alain, as a researcher could read the engravements. One of the balls had "LATIAS" and the second one had "GROUDON" written on it.

So it was true. They were sent back in time so that they could save Ash. Alain was more concerned with Mairin though. Now that she was alive and near him, he would never let her go. He gently hugged her and Mairin blushed.

"You probably won't believe this, Mairin, but...Arceus has given me a mission. I have to save Ash - we've been sent back in time...We must prevent the destruction of the world."

"Actually, I remember it all, Alain. I remember being dead...and how I was resurrected. I know that Chespie couldn't be returned. But I bid my farewell to him in the Distortion World so at least that's settled...And I have a new Pokemon egg. I saved it from the Team Flare scientists. " At the mention of Chespin Mairin's eyes filled with water and pain.

Alain nervously gupled. He was afraid that Mairin would be mad at him for what he had done. What must it have been like to be a dead soul? He couldn't even imagine.

"I'll be honest, Alain. I don't approve of your actions. I know you're not a bad person. However... You do realize that a lot of the problems could have been avoided if you just trusted me more? Couldn't you just talk about your problems with me? I'm not mad at you for doing bad stuff, I'm mad at you for not having trust in me. Do I really mean so little to you?"

They were now sitting right across each other on the grass in front of the white rustic house.

"I'm sorry." Alain was ashamed. He knew he was in the wrong. He didn't have the courage to look Mairin in the eyes after everything that he was responsible for.

"But...At least you're still with me - and that's all that matters." Mairin crawled over to Alain and locked her lips on his mouth.

The kiss was short but long enough to change the way Mairin and Alain felt about each other.

Suddenly,

"AHHHH! I'm Late for my starter Pokemon!" A certain young 10 - year old boy rushed out of the white rustic house banging the door-

He wasn't even properly dressed - he was wearing his green pyjamas.

As he ran off down the road, he left a cloud of floating dirt after himself.

"Was that...Ash?" Alain and Mairin wondered.

"We've gotta keep him in sight!" Alain said.

"Ok, let's go!" Mairin replied.

They ran off together after Ash.

* * *

 **Ok so this is my take on the whole "Alain Redemption" trope that has been popular recently! I decided to add in Mairin because she's a crucial character to Alain! And if there's anybody you want to see you can say it in the reviews!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Review Responses -**

 **St Elmo's Fire -** **Elmo I'm gonna steal your girlfriend**

 **Hybrid of Fate - Yeah, totally man**

 **Anonymous Person - Everybody loves Anime rewrites.**

Ash Ketchum, a 10 year old boy from Pallet town in the Kanto Region, was all nervous from anticipation. Tomorrow would finally be the day when he would get his first Pokemon. After watching a match of the Pokemon League on TV, where Elite Four Bruno was facing off a challenger, and being sent to sleep by his mom, he kept having fantasies about how he would become the Greatest Pokemon Master.

...

...

...

The warm sunlight rays were permeating Ash's room's window.

Gradually being pulled away from the world of dreams, Asha opened his eyes and reaized that it was late into the morning and that his alarm clock had been broken.

"Oh NO! What time is it?" He screamed. Sweat bursted onto his back as he was wearing pyjamas as he nervously ran out of the house, not even bothering to change clothes. He just HAD to get on time. Of course, in such a haste he completely didn't notice two weirdly dressed teens(?) sitting on the porch of his house as he dashed straight to the Professor's lab.

Mairin and Alain had no trouble keeping up with Ash running. They were keeping a safe distance of about 20 meters behind in order not to cause any suspicion.

Alain's mind was occupied by a lot of other issues, like his new Pokemon, or their plan of actions, but he decided to keep Ash in sight as the top priority.

Mairin wasn't thinking anything, she was just following Alain.

The boy they were chasing crossed over a small bridge, as a yellow house on top of a small hill could be seen nearby, and bumped into a group of cheerleaders. Apparently, at this place a crowd of different people had gathered. An arrogant boy approached Ash and they started a conversation. Then the other boy sat in a car and was drived away. The crowd dispersed and an elderly Professor approached Ash and they proceeded to go uphill and enter the building. Just as Alain and Mairin caught up and carefully ascended too.

"Ugh...What were they talking about? I mean Ash?" Alain said, taking a stern pose with a hand on his chin, as they were standing outside the house's front door. He decided not to enter to avoid any suspicion and Mairin just stared at him, waiting for confirmation of their next action.

"Apparenly, um...Something about getting a Pokemon late?" Mairin rephrased.

"Oh! That makes perfect sense! I knew that face seemed familiar. That was certainly Professor Oak, the Kanto Region Pokemon Professor. Hmmm...I believe his lab is located in Pallet Town..." Alain made an effort to remember the Kalos League Finals..."Right! Ash's from Pallet Town too! So...He's getting his starter, I suppose? At least we know where we are..." He internally shrugged, as he wasn't familiar at all with the Kanto Region apart from the Pokemon that inhabited it. He reached out for his Holocaster, but...it wasn't anywhere to be found. Neither was the Mega Evolution Stone. Alain and Mairin were caught up in such a rush following Ash that they forgot to check their belongings. The only things that they had left was their clothes on them, and their now empty bags. Alain also had his three Pokemon - Bisharp...and the two others. Mairin had an egg in her otherwise empty bag.

"Our s-stuff..It's gone..." Mairin said regretfully.

"I suppose everything that doesn't fit into the timeline disappeared. Since we and our Pokemon are here, this means, this probably doesn't apply to living beings, and our clothes and bags, well, I doubt they could have an impact on the timeline in a meaningful way." Alain concluded, trying to figure out the exact situation they ended up in.

"Umm...Are we even allowed to interact with Ash? Wouldn't it change the timeline, you know all that wacky sci-fi stuff?" Mairin responed, being struck by the thought.

Alain kept silent and occupied with thoughts for half a minute, seemingly ignoring Mairin's question, before replying,

"I don't think so. Arceus said that Ash is the Chosen One. I suppose that means that it's pre-destined in his fate to save the world. That means that whatever he does, his destiny will always lead him to a way to fulfill his purpose to save the world. In our...let's call them, "past lives", I checked him up using some of my secret information channels, and it turned out he had been saving the world on a regular basis. I can tell you about those incidents later. He truly is a hero, even if it doesn't show."Alain said with respect.

"Yeah, you can't really tell by looking at him." Mairin nodded.

"What I'm saying is that he will still have to be the Hero, the "Chosen One". Even if we talk to him in this timeline, whether he actually manages to save the world or not depends on him. Last time he couldn't do it, so it's our job to help him become as strong as possible while also protecting his life. Of course, we still shouldn't detour him too much. In the...future, Ash doing was travelling the regions and participating in Pokemon Leagues, so we'll just follow him. I don't recall him as the type of person to turn down a travelling companion offer. Only Arceus knows how long we'll have to travel together until Ash gets back to Kalos again... Speaking of Arceus,..." Alain turned to Mairin and seriously looked her in the eyes. "Mairin, the condition for your resurrection was that I would always remain loyal to you and obey **every single word you say.** Otherwise, your soul will be sent back to the ..." Alain didn't know how to finish the sentence. Alain lowered down to his knees. "Mairin, I beg you, do not ask me to do anything that is physically impossible for me to accomplish. Do you understand?"

Alain's eyes were biting into Mairin like a Mightyena biting into a Lotad. She gulped as her legs were shaking like jelly and said."...Yes." She was feeling really awkward, this was so much to take in at once, and all these thoughts were intertwining like a kaleidoscope, bursting with responsibility and implications. Alain rised back to his feet.

"In return, I promise that I will do anything you please. Anything. Think of me as your servant, as your slave, whatever. Just remember what I said." Alain concluded.

"Alain, y-you really don't need to go that far-" Mairin tried to shrug it off, as what Alain was saying was way too serious,- before she encountered his eyes again. "I-I g-got it, A-alain. Y-you can count on m-me." Alain wasn't joking - not that he ever really did - but this time there was an expression in his eyes that Mairin couldn't do anything against, only to obey.

"Mairin, are you familiar with the Multiverse theory?" Alain asked calmly.

"No." Mairin meekly answered.

"In that case...Well, I'll put it this way." Alain responded. "Mairin, every time Ash dies , he probably gets revived, he is the Chosen One after all. But we won't. We're not chosen the way he is, so this is our second shot at life. We have to be careful with it..." After taking a pause, Alain asked,

"...What's the Distortion World like? " The question was unexpected by Mairin, but Alain decided they might as well be sincere to the very end, with nothing to hide.

Mairin tried to remember. She started recollecting her memories, but it just didn't work out.

"You know Alain, it was...kind of like a dream. If you had asked me right after we...had awoken, I'd probably tell you as much as I could. But now, even though only about...I don't know, maybe forty minutes passed, every detail is hazy and unclear...It's definitely something hard to describe. I can't really remember anything for sure-" Mairin said, putting a hand on her chin, just like Alain...

Suddenly Mairin's expression changed and her face was full of shock, her arms started trembling...

"AAAH!" She screamed and fell to the ground, gasping as if she was desperately lacking air...She looked like she was about to vomit.

Alain regretted asking. He started calming Mairin down.

"Mairin, calm down, calm d-o-w-n...Breathe in, breathe out, everything's o-k-a-y..." Alain sat next to her and hugged her as she restored her calmness and her breath.

"I was- I was- I-I...Alain...Don't a-ask me anything about that p-place anymore. I'll j-just say say that there's nothing there that has any r-relation to what's happening with us right n-now..." Mairin said, barely holding back tears of deep, dark fright. "If...Someday, I- don't know...I- will probably tell you...but not now..." Mairin said.

"I understand." Alain said.

They both stood in silence near the door, as they saw a group of people gathering at the bottom of the hill. Some of them were holding a banner, saying "GO ASH GO!" Alain and Mairin were standing in silence watching them, as Alain decided to go down.

"I'm going to ask them." He said.

"Mhm." Mairin grunted and followed him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Review Responses -**

 **Mira Kial - Thank you very much for your advice! What I'm going for is that I want to write a more mature and slightly realistic story (while keeping all of the Pokemon World fantasy elements at the same time.)**

 **Toby Hark - Thank you!**

Alain and Mairin descended down the hill.

The crowd didn't seem to pay attention to neither Alain nor Mairin - they were too absorbed in preparing to greet Ash as he would get his starter.

"Hey, Mairin."

"Yeah?"

"Let's wait for Ash here."

"Mhm." Mairin seemed to be slightly depressed but she tried her best not to show it. Alain tried to keep his mind clear so he wouldn't be distracted.

In a few minutes a boy in green pyjamas and apparently Professor Oak himself came out of the building as they were greeted by music and applause from the crowd, including Alain and Mairin.

"Mom?" Ash said. Alain and Mairin noted to themselves, how much younger Ash seemed to be right now.

(Does this mean he's 10 year's old?...I recall that being the minimal Trainer age for Kanto as well...) Alain's thoughts trailed off...

A hot red-headed woman responded to Ash, "Ash! I'm so proud of you, because you are going to fulfill your dream of becoming a Pokemon Trainer but I'm going to miss you so much..." The woman teared up as she covered her face with a green backpack...Oh, my little boy!"

"Pika-chu!" A little chubby Pikachu stepped out from Ash's leg as Alain was relieved to finally see at least something familiar.

Mairin and Alain got pushed to the back of the crowd so they couldn't really se the rest of the conversation really well. They did hear some electrocution sounds though. Eventually the crowd dispersed and a shocked Ash and his also shocked mom holding Ash's Pikachu in her hands left straight for the direction where Ash's house was located.

Mairin and Alain followed them at a distance. Alain looked at Mairin and nodded questioningly, Mairin responded with an affirmative nod, confirming their unspoken plan of action. When they finally approached the white house, Alain spoke up.

"Excuse me!"

Ash and his mom turned around.

"And you might be..." Ash's mother asked.

"My name is Alain, and this is my-

-girlfriend," Mairin interjected assertively, with a "hmph" smirk on her face,

"Right," Alain confirmed (as his face went slightly red from embarrassment), "my girlfriend Mairin. We are...tourists from a distant region, we gpt lost in our travels, so we were wondering...if we could travel with your son. We accidentally overheard how he is about to embark on his journey...so why not join him? We don't have a defined set destination so we are just travelling around."

Alain felt nervous as tiny beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. It was important to convince Ash's mom right now, so they could easily accompany Ash.

"My name is Delia. It's a pleasure to meet you." Delia responded. "And what region might you be from?"

"ehh, Kalos!" Mairin shouted out.

"Well, that explains your...eccentric sense of fashion." Delia said, eyeing the couple (?) from head to toe. (And accent.) Delia thought to herself.

By Kanto standards, Mairin's and Alain's choice of clothing was ...strange, to say the least. Especially Alain's weird scarf thing. Mairin's outfit was also something you'd never see a Kantonian girl wearing.

They all proceeded into the house. As Ash was changing into his proper travelling clothes while wearing his rubber gloves in order to protect himself from Pikachu's weird attacks, Delia interrogated the couple while serving them tea.

...

"So...you're not planning on participating in this year's Indigo League?"

They were forced to answer a lot of questions out of context of what was going on, so they had to give vague yet convincing answers.

"Not rea-" Alain started.

"The League...? Yeah, sure thing!" Mairin blurted out.

"I see." Delia seemed to be really suspecting of them.

Both Alain and Mairin felt the suspicion in the air.

"Hmm...Hey Mairin, aren't you too young to be...Alain's girlfriend?"

"It's legal by Kalos Law, so it counts!" Mairin answered.

(Well, she IS old enough to qualify as an official Trainer, so technically...) Alain's thought trailed off as he got slightly spaced out.

"Oh, I see." Delia said. "So you kiss and stuff?" She asked either mockingly or teasingly, - it was hard to infer. But it was definitely condescending.

"Uhh..." Alain started. As stoic and serious as he was, never before had he experienced situations like this.

"We-we SURE DO!" Mairin answered. She grabbed Alain's shocked face, pulled it to her own and forced a light kiss on his lips. As the "couple" parted lips, they were both red like Cheri berries, too embarrassed to look at each other, both avoiding each other's eyes. It was one thing to kiss in private (even though it was only once), but public displays of affection were a whole different matter.

"Teehee" Delia giggled. "How cute! You know what, you definitely don't look like bad people so I guess you can travel with Ash. But please keep an eye on him!"

"We will!" They both said.

...

"So, guys, do you have, like, Pokemon?" Ash asked, as he was dragging Pikachu by a rope onto Route 1, accompanied by Alain and Mairin.

 _ **As our heroes head off into the depths of the Kanto Region, adventure awaits. Can Alain and Mairin become Ash's good friends?**_

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


End file.
